Mr. Stinky No More

Gus got a bath tonight. He is Mr. Stinky no more. 

Well, at least till tomorrow afternoon when he goes on his adventures. 

Easter Brunch and An Egg Hunt

We went to my mothers over the weekend to celebrate Easter. As usual she hosted a delicious brunch. With all manner of wonderful things to eat. 

My big sista made a sausage roll, OMG wonderful.  My little sista made us a spinach and mushroom frittata. Mom supplied the ham, a fruit tray, and some pancakes. I brought the cake. 

She also hosts an egg hunt for the grand-kids. This year it was a scavanger type egg hunt with clues to find your next egg and ultimately your Easter present. My parents and I fun the night before thinking of all the clues. 

Gus on the other hand decided he need to have his egg hunt on Saturday. See these beautiful eggs. Miss Talula Bell has been working on this nest for over a week. 

Gus took himself on an adventure Saturday while we were working on some major renovation project, we shall talk about that tomorrow. His adventure took him all over the neighborhood and then back to the porch, where he found the nest and the four eggs. He snatched them and ate them. All of them! The odds of us having any goslings running around just went way down. I think she will still be laying for the next few weeks. I might have to purchase a incubator and snatch the eggs myself this time. 

It's Here

After months of deliberating and a week of not so patiently waiting. It's here!! I went out and bought my self (well it's my Christmas, Anniversary, Birthday, and Valentines day present all rolled up in one) a Nikon D3000. 

Be prepared to be blown away by my mad photography skills. Cause every one knows that owning a nice camera automatically makes you an amazing photographer.

 Poor Gus, he is probably going to get sick of having his picture taken real soon. 

Almond Berry Cake

Last month Mr. B's parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Sunday some of there friends threw a surprise party for them. I was asked to bring the cake. 

I made a white cake with almond berry filling and almond frosting. I topped it with fresh berries and almond slivers. 

I never know how many people are going to be at these things and how much cake they eat. So I made cupcakes. Of course they were matchie-matchie. 

Scrappy Baby Quilt

I started this quilt top early last fall. I was using up some of my scraps, trying out this method. I made enough blocks for a baby quilt. I sewed them together and added a boarder. Then it sat for months.

I was recently invited to a shower for Mr. B’s cousin. They are expecting their first baby, a little girl. I pulled some pink, yellow, and purple fabric to make a quilt for her. Then I remembered the scrappy rainbow one. I couldn’t decided if I should make a “girly” quilt or give her the one that was already pieced. I opted for the scrappy one, it had bits and pieces left over from the wedding quilt I made for her parents.

I was brave, and crunched for time, and the amount of seems was intimidating for my un-thimble fingers (really never figured out how to use one of those) I opted to quilt this with my machine instead of my go to hand quilting. I started in the middle and worked my way out in a swirl/rectangle pattern. I finished off the binding, washed and dried it. Now it’s off to the post office to be sent to its new home.

On another note when we came home from church and brunch on Sunday, where I had the worst bloody mary ev-ah (all vodka with a splash of watery tomato juice, no spice no salt YUCK!) and discovered that I heart eggs benedict, we found this on our porch. Talula-Bell is starting to nest!

They're Back

Or maybe they never left, the fleas that is.

I prefer they're back.

Last weekend Gus really started to chew at his back, on his hinnie right above his tale. By the Thursday night it was all scabby and nasty. We decided we needed to take him to the vet.  I thought perhaps it was allergies.  We have been using a flea preventative, Front-line, since the November out break and had seen no traces of fleas on Gus or in our house so the idea that it could of them never crossed my mind. 

At the vet office, the assistant used a special flea comb and couldn’t find any of the nasty little buggers.  We discussed the possibility of allergies, Gus had started eating a lot of the corn that we feed the geese, his food is grain free there were some tummy issues in the past. Then the vet came in and she used the comb. She found one. The horror, I wanted the ground to swallow me up, I felt like I failed as a mom. How could I let me baby get them again and not realize it! Besides how could he have them?  After the all out war we had declared on them in November and the preventative, he should be fine. Not and itchy-scabby mess, it was supposed to be allergies he was going to go home with some steroids and creams and a cone of shame and that would be the end of that.

Now it’s flea baths and sprays and powders, mountains of laundry and a lot vacuuming.  Come to find out what we were going through wasn’t that uncommon. The vet said they were seeing resistance to the preventative, Front-line. We weren’t the only ones. That made me feel somewhat better. I still wanted to cry knowing the battle that waited for us when we got home.

 He is now on Vectra-3D. Gus’s doctor said this is a better product and they don’t even administer FL at their clinic any more. They also gave him an antibiotic for all his scabies and a shot to suppress his immune system to help with the itchy scratchies. Apparently some dogs are sensitive to fleas while others can have hundreds without being all scabby. Gus happens to be one of the special ones. A single flea bite can drive him nuts, he is allergic to their saliva. Gross I know.  

He is doing much better. He has stopped itching and the scabies are starting to heal. We applied the Vectra right when we got home and haven’t seen any fleas. The house has been sprayed and thoroughly vacuumed.

As far as if they were living with us all this time, I think not. Gus is allergic, we would have known. He also spent a weekend in February at his Gammie’s, there are no fleas at her house and her dog doesn’t have them either. I think he picked them up again. It was nice out last week and we were letting him spend long periods of time outside on adventures, he probably one of his friends or a wild animal shared them with him

Moral of the story: Fleas suck, Front-Line isn’t all its cracked up to be, and Gus has sensitive skin.

Throw Pillows

In-between applying coats of polyurethane to our floor this weekend, I was able to whip up the reaming three pillow covers for the couch. I went simple on these three. Eventually somewhere down the line I am going to make some patch work quilted ones. But for now, just to get some more color in the room I went with a simple print.

We have an orange-ish one. This is my favorite print. (I bought extra fabric just to stash away)

I also made a navy one.

 

And this red one. Now the red one was originally going to be a pom-pom pillow like this one. I had this idea pinned for months now. I made it. I liked it, but there was something.. My mother saw it and didn’t. She said it was to wintery. Perhaps it was. I had this red print tucked away I made a replacement for the poms. I think I bought it as a end of bolt special. You can’t pass up a decent print at 50% off when you have an additional 20% coupon! I’m like the pillow, I’m just not sure it goes with the other three. I will have to think on this awhile. Like I said eventually I would like to make some patch work ones. I can always teak apart the cover and reuse the fabric in a quilt. 

As for the pom-poms, I tucked it away for the time being. I might rework it for a smaller pillow...I think that's what it was. To big of a pillow, needs a smaller form to be more cozy.

Guillermo update: Still limping but doing much better. He is keeping up with the flock and sassing the dog.